


stuck in a net

by stupidqpid



Series: stuck [5]
Category: CIX (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, M/M, Summer Vacation, fisherman!Hyunsuk, merman!Jinyoung
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23882755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidqpid/pseuds/stupidqpid
Summary: A particularly large scaly expanse shimmering blue, green and purple under the sunlight caught Hyunsuk’s eye.[may 25th: added chapter 2]
Relationships: Bae Jinyoung/Yoon Hyunsuk
Series: stuck [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697086
Comments: 12
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

Hyunsuk always looked forward to summer vacations to be off school for three months and join his father on his fishing boat. As physically taxing a job as it was, the exhilaration of reeling in stubborn fishes or lifting up netfuls of them never grew old, making the brackish air sticking to his skin and the relentless sun burning him more bearable.

It was just the two of them that weekend; his uncle remained on land to sell their catch and stock up on provisions. Hyunsuk’s father always had to take a nap after eating, and that day was no different, with the older man retreating below deck and his son relaxing under the canopy, an eye on the propped fishing rods and on the bell that signaled how full the net was.

After about an hour of the young fisherman alternating playing with his phone and dozing off, the little bell started playing erratically but in a peculiarly different way from their other catches. Taken by surprise, Hyunsuk didn’t go to shake his father awake, rather shouted at him from the door leading downstairs and ran back to the net without waiting to see if his dad followed him.

Pressing on the gantry button with a bit too much excitement (for what, he wasn’t sure either), Hyunsuk started pulling the relatively light net on board, a cacophony of mechanical noises and spilled water drowning even his thoughts. Small fishes flopped on the deck, trying bouncing back to safety in the sea.

A particularly large scaly expanse shimmering blue, green and purple under the sunlight caught Hyunsuk’s eye. The teenager had to do a double take when, letting his eyes wander, he saw what he thought was human skin: it was pale with a faint gray-greenish hue that, for all intents and purposes, resembled that of a corpse; if it weren’t for the rapid movements of that slim torso, he would’ve thought he caught what was left of a shark’s snack.

Raking his eyes up, Hyunsuk observed the necklace resting on a toned chest and deep clavicles, comprising of a thin rope holding together shell, corals and pearls and tied behind a long neck, where two sets of gills were fluttering with exertion. Further up, a pair of pink and pretty lips were slightly apart, probably in horror, maybe in thankfulness, possibly in fear. The high cheekbones glistened with a light dusting of gold and the droplets of salt water still clinging to the skin, making even the bottomless dark pits of those eyes sparkle more warmly. Finally, shaggy blue hair framed the thin and small face of the stranger, from which two slightly pointy ears stuck out.

The net spread, letting a squirming heap of fishes slither across the deck. The oddly attractive guy followed suit, and it’s only then that Hyunsuk realized what he thought was a huge fish was in reality the bottom part of the stranger’s body, the long iridescent tail connecting seamlessly to his thin waist. 

A merman. Hyunsuk caught a merman.

Before he could ask for a name, the young fisherman was startled by a sudden noise coming from behind him. Taking advantage of the distraction the merman glided to the closest edge and swiftly pulled himself up to jump overboard.

A splash made Hyunsuk look back where the merman used to be, right before his sleepy and slightly annoyed father stepped on deck to reprimand him for lifting the net too soon. The boy rushed to the side of the boat to look in the water, but they were far enough at sea that its darkness reached the surface, preventing him from seeing even the barest trace of the merman. 

Dejected, Hyunsuk returned to his dad’s side and, following his lecture, proceeded to tidy up the deck alone. When he threw the net back in the sea, though, something fell off it: shining with the pretty iridescences of nacre, a palm sized shell lay dangerously close to one of the many openings that allowed them to get rid of all the water on board. 

The young fisherman rushed to pick it up, afraid it would fall in the sea. As he examined, he realized it was the centerpiece of the necklace worn by the mermaid, who must’ve lost it in his haste to escape.

With a longing glance at the shimmering sea in front of him, Hyunsuk closed his fist around the shell and brought it to his chest, as if trying to instill in it his hope to meet the merman again.

  
∘˚˳°∘°∘˚˳°∘°∘˚˳°∘  
  


Hyunsuk stretched his sore back and arms when he put foot back on land, tired but satisfied from spending most of his summer in the open sea fishing with his father. 

He just finished helping his dad and uncle cleaning the boat and loading the truck when he spotted a boy around his age looking at him from the stern of a yacht docked two spots down. The guy must’ve been observing him for a while, because as soon as Hyunsuk locked eyes with him he waved at the young fisherman to get closer. 

Perplexed, Hyunsuk complied, and with his long legs he was quickly in front of the yacht. The other boy hopped off the vessel too and was now standing before Hyunsuk with his arms behind his back and a tentative grin stretching the features of his small face, a gentle breeze ruffling his hair dyed an unnatural color and the light baggy clothes he was wearing.

“I believe you have something that belongs to me.”

Hyunsuk tilted his head to the side, confused and miffed by the accusation as well as the lack of introductions. Before he could ask for an explanation, however, the stranger revealed what he was hiding.

Frayed and not as colorful as Hyunsuk remembered it, the necklace he saw a few weeks ago hanging from the neck of a merman was now in the hands of this boy, and it was missing a piece.

Hyunsuk’s hands shot inside the pockets of his short pants, immediately wrapping around what he was looking for. As soon as he held it out for the other boy to look, both the shell he found and the broken necklace started looking more vibrant, almost alive. Instinctively, the fisherman looked up at the stranger, at his wacky hair, at his deep dark eyes, at his neck.

Realization dawned on Hyunsuk.

“Hi, I’m Jinyoung.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure I was gonna continue this, but here I am after typing twice as many words as chapter one .-.
> 
> Also fitting for MerMay, ayyy.

The little maritime village looked particularly beautiful that night, its many lights so eye-catching from several miles away from the coast.

Hyunsuk never thought he would some day find himself aboard a yacht, nursing a drink in the company of a pretty guy. A merman, no less. He and Jinyoung were standing side by side, cans in hand and many questions right on the tip of Hyunsuk’s tongue, that Jinyoung was waiting to hear with a tiny smirk. It was just the two of them on board, being this the only chance for them to hang out before the young fisherman had to return to the city for his last year of high school.

“So, uhm…” Hyunsuk started, unsure of what to ask first; he had to stop himself from continuously tapping his fingernails on the coke can. His grip tightened imperceptibly when he noticed, from the corner of the eye, Jinyoung staring at him intently with his dark and deep eyes, in which Hyunsuk felt he could drown if he dared to meet them.

“I heard your wish to meet again,” affirmed the young merman as he took a sip of his drink, deciding to finally put a halt to the fisherman’s hesitation. Hyunsuk turned to look at him with wide eyes. With a small grin, Jinyoung continued, “The necklace. Even if the elements are physically separated, the magic instilled when making the necklace keeps them connected. It’s useful for many different things, not limited to communication.”

“But I didn’t say it out loud--” Hyunsuk pointed out, promptly slapping a hand on his mouth when he realised the implications of what he just said. He blushed when Jinyoung smiled gently at him, the merman himself feeling bashful.

“I’ve been trailing after you for a while,” Jinyoung confessed, “at a safe distance to avoid being trapped in a net again, but never mustered the courage to approach you. Probably because I was scared of being seen by those older men with you.”

With his fisherman pride a bit hurt, Hyunsuk asked, “What makes you think I wouldn’t have tried to catch you, too?”

“You didn’t.”

“I was too surprised to do anything, really.”

“Good enough for me.”

Hyunsuk sighed. “Do you always have to be right?”

Jinyoung shrugged playfully. 

“I-I could’ve forced you to show me where to find more fish in exchange for not revealing your existence.”

“I would’ve helped you.”

Hyunsuk gaped at him. “Really?!?” _You would’ve betrayed other sea creatures?_ was implied. _You would’ve done that for me?_ was a wishful secondary interpretation of that question.

“...No.”

After a beat, they both snickered in their drinks. Hyunsuk exhaled a content sigh while drifting his eyes back to the enchanting sight of the illuminated village.

“Fair enough.”

They stood quietly for a while; at least the silence wasn’t awkward anymore.

Jinyoung shook his now empty can and threw it in the cooler. Giving his back to the coast, he leaned back against the handrail. “It’s too bad you have to leave tomorrow. I really should’ve tried to approach you sooner, while you were still on the boat...”

“Well, I won’t be around until next june, but we can still...wait, do you even have a phone?!” 

Talking with Jinyoung easily like that made Hyunsuk forget that the other would surely lead a different lifestyle as a merman. Was Jinyoung in his human form just to make Hyunsuk feel more at ease or did he also spend some time on land? If he had human friends, how did he keep in contact with them?

Amused by Hyunsuk’s confused expression, Jinyoung giggled and placed a comforting hand on the taller boy’s shoulder. “I have a phone, but have access to it like every one to three months since I have to leave it on the yacht, and my family and I swim much farther than the harbors where we dock. I spend most of my time in the water, you see,” he explained. To prove his point, he ran inside to fetch his phone—latest model—and showed it to Hyunsuk, even going as far as scrolling through a grand total of three contacts. “Not gonna lie, you’ll have more luck contacting me through the shell, but let’s exchange numbers regardless.”

“The shell...what? How? It isn’t even a conch…?” the brunette asked somewhat dazedly while his hands moved on autopilot, fishing out both his phone and the shell from his pockets. Hyunsuk has always heard about how you can hear the sea if you hold a conch shell to your ear; the one that used to be part of Jinyoung’s necklace, as pretty as it was with its blues and greys on the corrugated surface, was only half of a whole, making it impossible to recreate the ocean-like resonance. And that was only the scientific explanation: how were two people supposed to play wireless phone miles apart—not to mention with an entire body of water separating the surface from whatever abyss the merman lived in—with a mere seashell?

“I assume you had the shell in your hand or by your chest when you wished to see me again,” pointed out the merman, torn between smirking and cooing at Hyunsuk’s renovated embarrassment but fighting the urge to do either. “As long as you have it on you, you don’t even have to speak out loud: just hold it in your hand and call my name in your head. Wanna try?”

Skeptical but intrigued, Hyunsuk walked across the deck and faced away from the other boy, holding the seashell in the same way he did several weeks ago.

_‘Hey Jinyoung, can you hear me?’_

_‘Loud and clear, Hyunsuk.’_

The fisherman gasped, and mindlessly covered an ear while turning back to look at Jinyoung.

_‘It’s a fun trick, huh?’_

The amused smile on the merman’s lips never faltered, nor did his mouth move around words. If he saw Hyunsuk secretly pinching himself when he walked back to stand by his side, Jinyoung didn’t comment on it.

Now feeling more at ease, Hyunsuk considered addressing the elephant in the room.

“I should be going soon, but I have one more question…”

The blue haired boy nodded at him to continue, having a hunch of what he was going to be asked.

“Do you return to your merman form as soon as you touch water?”

Playfully rolling his eyes, Jinyoung explained that it was a more conscious effort, that he could swim and shower like a human if he wanted to, but it could also be a blink-and-miss-it rapid change.

“Do you want me to show you?”

Hyunsuk’s enthusiastic nod was an explicit enough affirmative answer, but his eyes shining with wonder sealed the deal for Jinyoung, who shamelessly started stripping—first his shirt, revealing the pale expanse of his skin, broad shoulders and thin waist, then his pants and shoes. The young fisherman looked away hastily, unsure himself of what he was expecting following Jinyoung’s offer: probably a snap of his fingers, a spin on the spot, whatever. A chuckle forced him to look at the older boy, who was about ready to jump overboard.

“Aren’t you going to undress, too?”

Hyunsuk gaped at him, but if he wanted to see the transformation happening in the water he had no other choice. Grumbling embarrassedly, he stripped down to his undies and threw a long leg over the handrail, copying Jinyoung’s rather uncomfortable position.

“Wait, before going...close your eyes.”

Now beyond the point of questioning everything, the fisherman did as he was told. A heartbeat later, a pair of cold and clammy hands covered his ears to hold his head in place and allow soft lips to press against his; he couldn’t help letting a tiny startled noise escape his nose and opening his eyes, but once he realized how chaste the kiss was he relaxed in it, even unconsciously pressing back, surprising Jinyoung in turn. Hyunsuk slowly opened his eyes when Jinyoung pulled away, both boys blushing as they bit their salty lips and looking everywhere but at each other. Eventually the merman cleared his throat and brought both legs over the rail, holding firmly onto it as he glanced at the black sea below them.

“Jump in first and keep your eyes open underwater,” he instructed. “Don’t worry about breathing either, that’s what the kiss was for…”

Hyunsuk would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a pang of disappointment after hearing that was the real reason for the kiss. Ignoring it the best he could, he looked down, strangely less intimidated by the inky water than he normally would be—another effect of the kiss?—and shot Jinyoung a timid smile before jumping. After a moment of hesitation, the young fisherman forced himself to open his eyes: despite the saltiness of the water and the particles of sand floating around, he could clearly and painlessly look around himself, also aided by the yacht’s lights. He then tested breathing underwater, and to his lack of surprise he had no problems doing that either despite water entering his mouth and nose.

Deeming he had left Hyunsuk enough time to get used to his temporary abilities, Jinyoung jumped in front of him. The wall of bubbles that formed upon impact slowly thinned out and rose towards the surface, progressively revealing his merman form: first the seemingly delicate but powerful caudal fin, then the long and sleek tail, shimmering in the tones of blue, purple and green until it blended with the waner complexion of his torso; further up, the incomplete necklace fluctuated around the slits of his gills, while his now longer hair framed the deep pools of his eyes and an entrancing smile directed at Hyunsuk.

Racking his eyes up and down Jinyoung’s now taller and more angular figure, Hyunsuk didn’t know what was making his heart beat faster: being in the presence of a merman after witnessing the transformation, or Jinyoung himself. He could only stare in fascination at the merman’s sensuous and smooth movements when he got closer, circling around Hyunsuk’s entire height before stopping right in front of his face, and before he knew it he had an arm around Jinyoung’s waist, meeting him halfway for a more heated kiss. 

Hyunsuk noticed they resurfaced only when he felt his face and hair dry coldly in the night breeze. They slowly pulled apart, still looking at each other’s lips until the human had to cough, his lungs going back to breathe normally.

“Let’s dry you up before you get sick. Starting your senior year with a cold isn’t ideal,” urged the merman, pulling the younger boy with him to the ladder and prodding him to board first. Jinyoung was right behind Hyunsuk, swiftly switching back to his human appearance to climb more easily and fetch something to cover his naked self with as soon as he stepped on board. A chest with towels was conveniently placed right next to the ladder, and Jinyoung threw one at the back of an unsuspecting Hyunsuk, startling him from his daze.

Hyunsuk almost slapped himself for allowing his eyes to drift down to the towel wrapped low on Jinyoung’s hips when he turned. Rubbing and patting himself dry, he distracted himself by mulling over a doubt that just hit him. After wrapping the towel around himself and retrieving the clothes they left behind earlier, he walked back to ask the merman, “You didn’t really need to go in the water to transform, did you?”

Jinyoung halted his drying to look at Hyunsuk with a neutral expression. He sauntered to the taller boy, calmly put his arms around his neck, and looked up at his eyes when he laconically admitted, “Nope~”

Their lips slotted back together before he even finished speaking.

∘˚˳°∘°∘˚˳°∘°∘˚˳°∘

The following morning saw Hyunsuk helping his parents loading the car with their luggage and going around hugging and thanking the relatives. After herding his younger siblings he could finally get in the car, and the family drove off to return home.

The main road passed in front of the harbor. Either curiosity or hope made Hyunsuk look outside the window, trying to spot a certain mop of blue hair, and the closer he got to the spots where his uncle’s boat and Jinyoung’s yacht were docked the more his expectations skyrocketed.

Luck would have it that Jinyoung stepped out of the cabin right when they drove past the yacht, and the two boys barely had the time to wave at each other. Hyunsuk turned in his seat to look at the other boy for as long as he could, until increasingly taller buildings covered the view.

The boy willed himself not to blush when his parents asked who he was waving at.

“A new friend.”

Hyunsuk thought it was just his imagination when he felt the seashell he was wearing hidden underneath his t-shirt warm his skin, but immediately after he heard, 

_‘I’ll miss you, Hyunsuk. See you soon.’_

He watched trees and houses pass by with a smile on his face.


End file.
